John Hood BMO MSCI EAFE Index ETF ZEA-T BUY Aug 08, 2017

A good holding of 10%, or better to hold Europe and Asia separate with a 5% position each? Thinks you are fine going with this. Why pay 2 commissions? He has this precisely because it has some Japan in it. It also reduces, in some cases, and overweighting in the UK.

All the stocks except North America. You have had a good experience in stocks in the US, but now you need to move out of North America. After the political shadow has been lifted in Europe, you want to be there.

He likes the International space. This one has a fee of about 23 basis points, and you get lots of diversification over many different regions for many different countries. It is wise to start moving money into overseas positions, and this is a pretty good name to start with. He also likes iShares EPAC Dividend (IDV-N). This one gives you a little bit more dividends, probably closer to 4%.

Your portfolio is going to be made up of fixed income and equities, and he recommends that within the equity portfolio that you have 1/3 of your equity positions invested in international markets. That is a big order, and if you need to start somewhere, this is the one he is using. A great entry point into the international market.

(Past Top Pick on June 1, 2017, Up 5%) It's a core position. ZEA is like the S&P 500 but the stocks lie outside the US--blue chips like Nestle, Honda, Shell and HSBC. Contrast the S&P which is tech-oriented vs. EAFE is more cyclical (industrials, financials, energy). This is also cheaper than the US index with an MER of only 0.22%.

(A Top Pick June 1 / 2017 , Up 4%) Still likes it. Core part of their portfolio. Investor confidence level goes down outside of US. This is the equivalent of the S&P 500 outside of the US. Mega-cap global index. Not on the tech side, much more cyclical. Doing better before Trump got involved. Last 6 weeks, international ETFs hit hard. Trump is just negotiating, and these stocks will bounce. Value is better in Europe and Japan than in NA.

(A Top Pick July 5/17, Up 9%) A key holding of his. Equivalent of the S&P 500 for companies that aren’t headquartered in the US. Last 3 months have been hit hard by Trump tariffs. Investors shoot first, ask questions later, but he continues to be a believer. Thinks if the markets have a tough 12 months, international markets will outperform the US on the downside.

XEF is the biggest of the international ETFs, where IMI stands for "investable market index"; developed countries that are not NA, but not EM countries either. Less risky than EMs. Good entry point at only 22 bps.

ZEA tracks just the vanilla MSCI, and it's just the large caps.

Be careful mixing and matching international with EM exposure. For example, FTSE and Vanguard consider South Korea to be a developed country, but MSCI does not. So you may end up with gaps or overlaps.